Father Cataldo note found at Rosalia church

Jana Mathia, Gazette Reporter | Nov 23, 20170

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Monica Peters and Father Mike Savelesky with the commemerative framed display comprised of Father Cataldo’s note and picture, a picture of Willam Hesse’s headstone, copies of the East Oregonian banner and story about Hesse’s death and write-ups by Savelesky.

A bit of housekeeping at the Holy Rosary Catholic Church in Rosalia has uncovered an historic gem.

“I’m just amazed they didn’t see this before,” said Pastor Father Mike Savelesky who made the discovery. Savelesky was going through the baptismal registry of the Rosalia parish when he found an envelope affixed to the inside of the back cover. On the envelope was written “Papers in this envelope were between pages of this register.” It was among these loose pages he found a note hand-written and signed by Jesuit missionary Father Joesph Cataldo who served in the Rocky Mountain Mission from 1856 until 1893. June 16, 1877, he was named superior general of the mission which covered modern-day Washington, Oregon and Idaho and parts of Montana and Wyoming.

“That man is historically famous,” Savelesky said.

While the writer is extraordinary, the note itself is rather standard. It reads:

“St. Mary’s Church

“Pendleton Oregon

“Apr. 18th 1910

“To whom it may concern

“This is to testify that W. G. Hesse died this morning at St. Anthony’s Hospital after having received the last Sacraments of the Catholic Church. After the accident he suffered intense pains but with great patience and resignation to the will of God.

“Joseph M. Cataldo S.J.

Catholic Priest”

This discovery spurred Savelesky into treasure hunting mode.

He had to push back dirt at the Catholic cemetery in Rosalia to get the full view of the headstone for William G. Hesse, Apr. 10 1887 Apr. 18, 1910. Savelesky pointed out that the note written by Cataldo was probably sent ahead of the body to the parish where he was buried.

His curiosity piqued, he contacted Monica Peters with the Whitman County Genealogical Society. She accepted the assignment, gave him a rundown of costs associated and then got to work. Thanks to the note, they knew where he had died. Peters used the WCGS resources, census records and a newspaper website to uncover the story of how a note written in Pendleton, Ore., found its way to a small town in eastern Washington.

“We kind of lucked out with this one,” Peters said.

A copy of the East Oregonian, published in Pendleton, was scanned into the newspaper website Peters was searching. On the day of his death, the paper had a front page story: YOUNG MAN VICTIM OF TRAIN WHEELS. According to the article, Hesse was “beating his way from Arlington to Pendleton where he expected to go to work. He was stealing a ride into Umatilla on a blind baggage car when the accident happened, which took his life.

“It seems that he started to swing off the train just as it pulled into the station, or was getting ready to do so, when he was struck by the coal chute which comes close to the track.

Though knocked nearly senseless he hung on for 24 or 36 yards, but was finally forced to let go and he fell with his lower limbs under the wheels.

The left leg was severed diagonally near his hip while his right foot was cut off above the ankle.

Though injured internally in addition to having both limbs severed, the young man never lost consciousness and during the two hours he was compelled to wait for transportation to the Pendleton hospital, he cracked jokes with the trainmen, keeping up his courage to the last.”

The article ends with a statement from Hesse’s father that he was a “hard working honest young man, whose only faults were a desire to wander and to steal rides from the railroad company.”

From Peters’ research she was able to flesh out more of Hesse’s story.

“So I was able to give Father Mike a little history,” she said.

William George Hesse was the son of Mary and John Hesse. He was born in Kentucky April 10, 1887. The family lived in Rosalia in the early 1900s. Peters found a 1905-06 edition of Polk’s Whitman County Directory which listed John Hesse as a painter. Mary Hesse died the following year, June 21, 1921, and is buried at the Rosalia Evergreen Cemetery. Peters and Savelesky both concluded the family had not been in Rosalia long. John died in Los Angeles, Calif., Nov. 14, 1947. William was their only child.

Peters noted one interesting point was that William Hesse was listed in the 1910 census as at the “healing house” although he had not been there long before he died from his injuries.

While commonly associated with the Spokane and Coeur d’Alene area where he left behind the site of Gonzaga College and a mission named after him, Cataldo was serving in Pendleton at the time of Hesse’s death. He stepped down from the role of superior March 23, 1893, and continued to serve in the Northwest for nearly 30 years more. His last assignment was at St. Andrew Mission among the Umatilla. From there he assisted at St. Mary Church and St. Anthony hospital in Pendleton which is where he administered to Hesse.

Cataldo died at that mission April 9, 1928.

With the tale of Hesse and Cataldo wrapped up, Savelesky has been bitten by the history bug and is finding “gems” while combing through diocese records.

The Cataldo note is now in a framed commemorative piece with a picture of Hesse’s marker, picture of Cataldo, a copy of the East Oregonian banner and story of Hesse’s death and a couple of write-ups by Savelesky about Cataldo, the note and Hesse.